Haku placed 3rd at the Rotary Speech Competition

Congratulations to Haku from Rm 18 who competed in the North-West Schools Rotary Speech Competition. Haku did an amazing job and placed 3rd.

He has written a story about attending the Competition.

The Speech Competition - By Haku

"Yesterday at an intermediate called Christ the king I had a speech contest.  When I got in there there were many chairs which made me nervous and I wondered how many people were going to be here?  30 minutes later all the people came to the hall and sat at the connected seats. The more people came, the more nervous I became. I started noticing how many people were going to watch me do my speech.  ‘Wha! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaa!  Blah blah blah”

Many noises got shot into my brain making me be scared if the other kids would interrupt me while doing my speech.

Then I don’t know who but an old man said something like we are going to start the speeches or something like that.  A few minutes later he said”Now we are going to start the speeches. Firstly, from the year fours. Come up now!” Nervously, I climbed up the stairs that led to the massive stage where everyone was going to present their speeches.  Luckily I was the last one who was going to present my speech for the year 4 group.

There were speeches about chess, Hokitika, why the government should not take away the fun stuff and why you should do sports.

Finally it was my turn and I was very nervous that my knees were actually wobbling but luckily not a single person noticed.  Not even the judges.  The old man said  ”Now it is Haku Povall from Cotswold school and his subject is ants!”.  I got a bit mad.  I wanted him to say amazing, incredible, strong, fascinating, cool, fighting ants.  I started saying my speech.  I was very nervous but I did it at a good pace with a voice that everyone could hear.  Well maybe.

Finally when my speech was done everybody clapped with great enjoyment.  I was happy that they liked my speech and  no one interrupted me.  When the adults clapped for us again we went back to where our parents were sitting.  My mum and dad were happy and said many things that made me happy.   Next went the older year groups.  All of them were very good but I still think mine was the best.  When every year group finished up 

The judges started thinking while all the other people could eat cookies and have a cup of tea.  About 20 minutes later the bell rang which meant the judges had chosen who was 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  This was the part where I felt the most nervous.  When they started I put my hands together and kept saying”Please I win, please I win.”  

Luckily I came third, not highly recommended but I think just being in the finals is amazing."

By Haku (Rm 18)